Now I recently moved away from the god awful Vodafone to pay as you go with giffgaff. Now giffgaff I think is owned by O2, works off there network but, operates completly separately.

Now why would I do this?

Well for £10 a month I get 250 cross network minutes, unlimited text messages unlimited free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and unlimited data. With no tie in. Once your goody bag that you buy has expired you can then either buy another, or you can top up and use credit.

They ported my number from Vodafone inside 12 hours and all was well.

So if your looking for a cheaper deal with blinding coverage click on one of the links on the right and get yourself a free sim. When you activate a sim acquired from one of those links we both get an extra £5 credit applied.

One side note is you cannot phone them up if you do have any problems. You have to open a message on the support forums. Now I have done this with great success. So I do not feel this to be a problem!

1) Open Terminal.

Execute the following commands:

2) sudo chmod o+w /Library/Preferences

3) sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_host_prefs_version -int 1

Make an AFP connection to another system so that the AFP Client preference file will be filled in with the default set of values. Note: You must connect as a registered user, not as a guest.

Execute the following command to see a list of the disabled User Authentication Methods (UAMs)

4) defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_disabled_uams

By default the disabled UAMs are “Cleartxt Passwrd”, “MS2.0″, “2-Way Randnum exchange”, and “DHCAST128″. Note: if you don’t see a list, restart your computer and repeat step 3.

To enable one of these UAMs, remove it from the list of disabled UAMs. For example, this command enables DHCAST128 by removing it from the list of disabled authentication methods:

5) sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_disabled_uams -array “Cleartxt Passwrd” “MS2.0″ “2-Way Randnum exchange”

After the desired changes have been made, restore the permissions on the Preferences folder with this command:

6) sudo chmod o-w /Library/Preferences

For #5 I used the below as the command. As I wasnt sure which UAM was the one I needed to disable. (However I know that this worked.)

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient afp_disabled_uams -array

After first setting it up with the default o2 firmware. I was bored, so I did some googling and came across the Joggler Wiki (http://jogglerwiki.com/) I downloaded a few different flavours of Linux, but only managed to get Ubuntu (maverick 10.10) working. Although it worked, it wasn’t great with the touchscreen. When you plug in a keyboard and mouse it worked far better, I decided to use it as a small TV loading tvcatchup.com in Firefox but it couldn’t cope; it jumps, stutters and is generally unwatchable.

I’ve considered a few options for the Joggler such as:

An interactive alarm clock.

As part of an ICE (In Car Entertainment System) install.

Or using it as a Network Monitor system.

So now I’m not sure what to do with it, it can’t be used for what I was going to use it for.

I do like the idea of using it as part of an ICE system, however this would mean cutting into the dash board to mount the touch screen, removing the back stand which also acts as the heatsink as well as finding a suitable way of powering it in car! So for the meantime it shall remain boxed up waiting for a suitable use.

If anyone spots any cool uses for the Joggler please do tweet me or comment on here to let me know.

How time fly’s when your having fun!

Bit of a nothing post this one, Just to let you all know that I’m still alive and kicking.

Will be back soon for a better update. (Maybe)

However, a rather big something has decided to walk back into my life..well actually it was emailed into my life. A free World of Warcraft month long subscription.

Now I stopped playing WOW three years ago, when I realised it was taking up far to much of my life. I knew people in the guild that I was in at the time better then I new my real friends. I was loosing track of all things reality, sleep patterns went out the window as I was up until all hours questing and levelling. Then it hit me, cancel that subscription and get outside in the real world.

Now all of a sudden darned blizzard sent me a free trial on my old account, unbeknown to me and before I knew it, that month had passed and I was well and truly hooked again. In all honesty within days of re-entering the world I was addicted again.

When I first went back in my character was level 20, within a month I was level 61. Im now not only having to pay the £9 a month, I’ve had to order the latest versions to make sure I can keep levelling. Sad huh?!

There is a small benefit of all this i suppose, that is the fact it has kept my overdraft and myself out of the pub.

So, I would like to introduce you to my online alter ego “mebigguy” a level 60 human warlock.

(and yes, for some reason, it does look like he is wearing a skirt!)

I’ve now had just over a week back in the office and am still feeling quite relaxed. I’ve had a couple of days with a colleague who was down from Edinburgh, now whenever we meet up, whether it’s me going to Edinburgh or him coming here always tends to turn into a very boozy time! Needless to say this trip was no different. We had the added benefit of being taking out by my (and now his) supplier for IT Kit for a nice lunch.

So now I’m back in the swing of things, it’s now time to up my game blogging again! So keep checking back between Monday’s and Friday’s for some hopefully interesting posts!

I didn’t need much justification to order one, simply put angry birds in high definition was enough. Although there are so many other things it will come in useful for.

I’ve been a bit eager however, I’ve opened it up and syncd it with my work itunes and laptop, which has no apps, no music and no videos, but when I get home I shall be reseting it, reaactivaitng it with my home machine which has everything on it from my iPhone, but I just couldn’t wait for that!

A couple of things I have noticed in this afternoons usage are the screen gets covered in fingerprints really easily and believe it or not Apple do not provide a cloth. The other thing is the spell check is just as annoying on the iPad as it is on the iPhone. What doesn’t it realise that if I have typed the same word three times with the same spelling I do not mean the word you obviously think I mean even though, it is a word and more importantly spelt correctly!

That is about all for now, will post some more thoughts and pictures when I am home tomorrow night.

The top Five problem solving Applications I couldn’t live without.

1) Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Free Edition

I’ve not found many bits of malware that this software doesn’t get rid of on a full scan. Sometimes it can be made difficult to get it to run if the malware is that good at its job (or bad depending how you look at it) However if you do have difficulty getting it to run number four on this list may well help you out!

This needs to be installed on the machine with the problem, but takes twenty seconds to install, and then another twenty to download the latest updates

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

2) Firefox + AdBlockPlus + xMarks

Not a problem solving tool as such, but I’ve listed this app plus two extensions as one app, as for me I don’t have FireFox without the other two. It makes life so much easier to have all your bookmarks and passwords synced from all my other machines. It means I have the guides for those not so familiar problems that I have seen and forgotten about in the past in the “how to” bookmark folder. It also means you can Google anything wherever you have an Internet connection!
I have it installed on my laptop, as I’m not sure how stable the extensions are in portable FireFox.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
http://adblockplus.org/en/
http://www.xmarks.com/

3) AngryIp Scanner

This IP scanner helps you scan a range of IP addresses that you define, Its amazingly helpful at tracking down routers, printers and other network kit that comes with DHCP setup by default. It lists the IP with the hostname next to it.

Can be run off a USB stick or installed. I generally have it on a USB stick. However keep in mind that overzealous Antivirus software may flag this up as a problem due to its nature.

http://www.angryip.org/w/Home

4) HijackThis

HijackThis alongside http://www.hijackthis.de/ The website is a log file analyser, this will tell you from the log file that HJT creates what is good, bad and unknown files, registry keys and startup items. The app scans your hard disk and the website compares the log against the default options as well as what has been rated by users.

HijackThis can also be installed or run off of a usb stick. Which makes it very handy if the spyware stops you running from certain programs, you can just re-name the exe file and away you go!

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

5) NetStumbler

Is a wireless network sniffer, It helps establish the things that are causing your wireless problems. It tells you how many other networks in range are on the same channel, its signal strength, its encryption type as well as the signal degradation. Awesome bit of software, Never leave home without it when you don’t know where or what the problems you are going to be facing are!

There is a NetStumbler portable, however I do not think it is as up to date as the installable and I have never had much luck with the portable version.

http://www.netstumbler.com/

So that brings an end to the first top five, if you think there are other apps that should be on here or that I have missed let me know your thoughts!